The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-09-21
SIBERIAN DIET.

As regards the food of the aboripi-
mails of Asiatic Russia, vegetarianism
cannot be said to have made much |
headway among the nomads. whether |
in Siberia or Tarkistan.
Deprived for so MANY months of the |
year by snow of the sight of ANYTHING |
green, when the Siberians kill q rein.
deer they carefully empty its stomach
or the undigested moss the animal has
eaten, and serve that up as delicacy,
but IN winter they get little vegetable
1000 besides Even with nomads of
the StePpe. what -four food they eat is
taken chiefly in the form of Cruel. 1t
struck me as a strange contrast of
dietary customs when the Archbishop
OF Nernoye informed me that they in
tended TO send monks as missionaries
OF the Russian Church to the Ruruti or
hara-kirghese, for the Russian monks
eat no meat. and the Buruti eat no
bread, so they proposed TO cut the
Knot by planting station on the
shores of Lake Isik-kul, where the
holy men could feed on fish.
The kirghese of the Steppe live in
the summer almost entirely on milk.
variously prepared. whilst the rich eat
OF mutton as their staple food, with
the addition of beef, and occasionally
eameIs flesh. In the north the Ya-
kutes are fond of horse-fiesh. A va
kute bride on her wedding-day sets
before her lord and master as the
greatest of delicacies horse-fiesh saus-
ages, with a boiled horses head. of
which the brains are the most dainty
morsel. The quantity too of horse
hesh they eat is appalling. Their ad-
age says, that ito eat much meat, and
grow fat upon ii, is the highest des-
tiny OF man | myself was not pre-
sent at one of their orgies. but as far
back as the days of Strahlenberg it
was said that four Yakutes would eat
horse. Once more, the Gilyaks exist
on very different kind of food, for
they are almost ichthyophagi. salmon
being their principal diet. This fish
! comes up the Amur in such numbers
| that they can be tossed out with a
| pitehfork. Even the dogs 90 into.the
| stream and catch for themselves, and
| salmon such as the finest seen in Lon
| don may be purchased in the season
among the Gilyaks for penny each.
| The fish, cut up and dried, without
| further cooking, are eaten, piece of
similar size per day serving alike for
the Gilyak and one of his dogs. |
went to the lower Amur disposed to
confide IN the theory that fish diet, by
reason of its phosphorus, was calcui-
ated to give brain power to students.
| but after seeing the miserable speci-
mems of humanity in the Gilyaks who
| live on fish, my belief in this theory
has been rudely shaken.
| The GilUalc ado annt haY- ,,sa Of l,a
salmon which | do not remember to
| have heard of in other countries, mas
much as they employ the skin for
them "Yupitatze," or fish-skin strang-
ers. The fish-skin is prepared from
two kinds of salmon. They strip it of
with dexterity, and by beating with a
mallet remove the scales, and SO
render it supple. Clothes thus made,
l need hardly say, are waterproof,
but they have an Objectionable smell
to noses polite. / was fortunate
enough to purchase on the Amur q
tish-skin coat, which l believe in En-.
gland is unique. for there is nothing
like it in the British Museum. 1t is
handsomely embroidered on the back,
the intermixture of colors being skill
fully wrought in needle-work.
Fish-skin, however, is used only fol
summer clothing. In winter the
Gilyak delights to clothe himself in
the skins of his dogs, or of fox ol
wolf, as being next warmest. The
! tribes further west, as indeed do al
the Siberian people, employ the skin,
of the reindeer and elk for wintel
clothing. Such immense numbers o
the elk are killed that in some year
: one may buy in the town of Yeniseisl
2 alone as many as ten thousand skins
DR.. Henry Ldnsdeit, IN Harper'S Ma
: Odzine